This invention relates generally to electronic musical instruments and more particularly, to an electronic organ including circuitry for generating harmony signals in the octave above a four note group which includes a melody note played on the upper manual of an electronic organ.
It has always been desirable from a musical standpoint for an organist to include harmony notes below the melody being played upon the upper manual and related to the chords being played upon the lower manual. While playing such harmony signals requires great manual dexterity and concentration, many professional organists frequently use the technique to enhance and complement the music being played. An amateur organist is rarely able to master such a complicated playing technique but would nevertheless like to enhance the music being played to the same degree as the professional organist.
To satisfy the need of providing the beginning organist with the capability of playing harmony notes below the melody being played, various automatic harmony systems have been developed and are available in prior art devices. Often times these systems incorporate complex and cumbersome arrangements of mechanical switching devices to generate harmony signals in response to the depression of keys on both a lower manual or accompaniment manual and an upper manual or a melody manual. Electronic circuitry including digital circuitry, has been provided to generate such harmony additions in electronic organs. These automatic harmony signals enable the organist to perform what otherwise is a complex maneuver of incorporating harmony signals on the upper manual to co-ordinate with the signals generated on the lower manual.
Harmony generation circuits as described above are common in the prior art and each of these harmony circuits generates harmony signals an octave below the melody note played on the upper manual. The tonal relationship of providing harmony signals in the octave below the melody note and related to the chord being played on the lower manual is well known in the musical arts and is known to create a pleasing musical effect.
Manufacturers of electronic organs have implemented circuitry to perform such well known musical techniques as the generation of harmony signals in the octave below the melody note played on the upper manual of an electronic organ. However, such harmony signals tend to "muddy" or degrade the sounds generated by an electronic organ since lower pitch harmony signals are added and the harmonics from the individual notes being sounded on the upper manual tend to clash as the notes get lower in pitch.